Human Wildlife Conflict Tech Challenge

WWF and WILDLABS challenge you to create new or improved tools to prevent conflict between humans and wildlife. If you come up with the best solution, we'll support you with a prize of 30,000 EUR to further develop and test your idea in the field.

Conflicts between people and wildlife are a serious problem in many parts of the world. The damage that wild animals cause to property — and sometimes to human life — is a real and significant danger to many communities. With the animals often killed, captured, or otherwise harmed in retaliation or defence, these conflicts are one of the main threats to the continued survival of many species. WWF views addressing human-wildlife conflict (HWC) as a priority in our species conservation efforts.

Technology has an increasingly important role in helping conservationists understand, monitor and protect wildlife. Although it isn't a silver bullet, if applied to the challenge of developing early warning systems for a variety of conflict species, technology could have a significant role to play in preventing human wildlife conflict. WWF and WILDLABS are now searching for creative ideas for this very purpose.

We challenge you to develop a new, or improved, technology tool to prevent human-wildlife conflict. The two winning solutions will receive a prize of up to 30,000 EUR each. With this prize, you will refine your solution and field test it with the support of WWF's landscape teams.

We are looking for new technology or improvements to existing tools to prevent human wildlife conflict. Submissions to this challenge should center on an innovative early detection system for one of the two following contexts:

You can design a tool specific to one of these carnivore species, or think of a generic tool that could be used for multiple species. The winner will work with a WWF team to decide where the tool will be tested and further developed according to the relevant local conditions.